


Maybe

by orphan_account



Series: Brighter Than Any Star - Otherwise known as, Reylo fics that I need to get out of my head [2]
Category: Star Wars, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Cyndi Lauper saves the day, Dancing, F/M, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Gen, Reylo - Freeform, Romantic Fluff, just a one-shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 14:19:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13549137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The Force happens to connect Ben and Rey together during a Resistance celebration, allowing him to see Rey dancing and having fun with her friends and it stirs up feelings in him that he thought he could never have.





	Maybe

**Author's Note:**

> So I don't own either of these songs. One is Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper, if you don't know that song then shame on you, and the other is Sinners by Lauren Aquilina, which I think is such a Reylo song. That's all, hope you enjoy it!

No matter how many times Ben sees her, he'll never not think that she's beautiful. He's seen her many times since Crait. The bond had even let them start seeing each other's surroundings, but he'd never seen her like he's seeing her tonight. Tonight, Rey is more than beautiful. She's _happy_. She's smiling and dancing alongside her friends, the hot-shot pilot and the traitor. She weaves her way through the crowd, blushing a bright red when someone congratulates her on leading them to victory at the battle earlier today.

That's what she did. She helped the Resistance win. She's becoming so much more powerful in the Force, it seems to flow through her so much easier than it flows through him. She's becoming a real enemy, a real nuisance to the First Order, and Ben can't bring himself to care as he watches her smiling wider than he'd ever dream of her smiling at him.

Then the song comes on.

 _I come home, in the morning light_  
_My mother says "When you gonna live your life right?"_  
_Oh momma dear, we're not the fortunate ones_  
_And girls, they wanna have fun_  
_Oh girls just wanna have fun_  
  
Oh, his mother used to love this song. She'd play it in her apartment back in Coruscant, singing and dancing around the room with Ben in her arms, smiling and giggling at his mother's silly antics.

He watches as his mother grabs Rey's hand and starts to dance with her; nothing like the younger people are doing, Ben forgets how old his mother must be getting. He hasn't seen her in so long, but he'd recognize her anywhere. He'll never forget that smile.

He watches fondly as his mother spins Rey around and Rey spins her in turn and they laugh as they dance to a song that brings Ben back to his childhood. He tries to keep himself from smiling as Rey nearly falls into somebody and apologizes profusely while his mother laughs. His mother had always found it amusing when Ben slipped as a child, though she would immediately nurse his "wounds."

 _That's all they really want_  
_Some fun_  
_When the working day is done_

There's something about seeing Rey dancing with his mother that makes something in his heart thaw. Maybe in another time, another world, this could have been a different celebration. His mother could have been smiling for a whole other reason, Rey would have been blushing from something other than the heat of the room and the exertion of dancing.

But this is not that time or that world.

There'll never be a different celebration where Rey and his mother will be smiling at him.

Not after everything he's done.

He closes his eyes as the realization of that stuns that thawed piece of him, freezing it over again.

 _I wanna be the one to walk in the sun_  
_Oh girls, they wanna have fun_  
_Oh girls just wanna have_  
_That's all they really want_  
_Is some fun_  


He almost pulls away, almost slips back through the Force to his room on that dark ship that's floating through space, when he hears her voice, a tentative whisper, "Ben . . . "

His eyes snap open to find her staring up at him, her hazel eyes wide with some emotion he can't name.

"Rey, I - " He starts but he can't find anything else to say, nothing but her name.

"I know," She says.

She holds out her hand; like she had that night, oh, that wonderful night. "Dance with me, Ben," She pleads.

His heart squeezes tightly. He almost takes her hand when he looks around, realizing that they're not alone. "Won't people think it's a little strange if you start dancing with yourself?" Why do words come back to him now? Now that she's asking him to dance, to hold her close, his words come back just to reject her.

"They can think I'm strange all they want," Rey says with a smirk, "after all, I just saved their asses."

Ben surprises himself when a laugh rises in his chest. It doesn't quite escape his mouth, but it's there nonetheless. A genuine laugh. It's been ages since he's had one of those. And she's the one that nearly brought one out of him.

"Alright," Ben says, taking her hand and shivering at how good her skin feels against his. He loves feeling her callouses against his hands, soft from those leather gloves protecting them, "but I'm not much of a dancer."

She snorts. "Me either."

Ben didn't even notice that a new song had started until Rey pulls him closer than he expected for the fun, light-hearted song that had been on. No, a soft song comes on. A song that requires dancing closer together, bodies pressed against each other.

 _Our lives are stories, waiting to be told_  
_In search of silver linings, we discovered gold_  
_And judgement taught us that our hearts were wrong_  
_But they're the ones that we'll look down upon_

Rey squeezes his hand with hers as she leans forward and rests her head against his chest, unable to reach his shoulder. He suddenly thankful for the song change. Yes, this song will do. This song will do just fine.

 _You showed me feelings I've never felt before_  
_We're making enemies, knocking on the devil's door_  
 _But how can you expect me not to eat,_  
 _When the forbidden fruit tastes so sweet?_

Ben looks over Rey's shoulder to find other people dancing like him and Rey. The traitor and a short, black-haired girl. The pilot and some Torguta girl. His eyes land on his mother and he frowns as he finds her standing alone. It's his fault, he knows, that she doesn't have a partner, that a handsome smuggler hadn't swept her off her feet like he'd done so many times before. He couldn't this time.

But then his mother looks at him, dead center. Her eyes meet his and . . . she smiles. She smiles a secretive smile and then nods. She winks at him as her secret smile spreads before turning to one of the other elder ladies standing near her, pulling her in for a dance so they won't be alone.

 _So let's be sinners to be saints_  
_And let's be winners by mistake_  
_The world may disapprove_  
_But my world is only you_  
_And if we're sinners then it feels like heaven to me_

 _Maybe,_ Ben thinks, _Maybe, I do have a chance._ Maybe one day, he can dance with Rey in person, in public, where no one will judge because no one will care. Maybe one day, Rey will smile at him, only him, and his mother will be happy for him, for something he's done. Maybe one day, he can have that celebration that he thought would never happen, not in this time or this world. Maybe, he just needs a little bit of change.


End file.
